Senior Labor Party officials are encouraging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to invite Yisrael Beiteinu and its leader, Avigdor Lieberman, to join the coalition.

Sources who described talks between Olmert and senior Labor officials said that the latter urged the prime minister to make every effort to preserve a stable coalition, and pointed to Lieberman's party as the best way of doing this.

The Labor officials told Olmert that he cannot rely on their party, because the party infighting has escaped the control of its leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Due to Peretz's loss of control, these officials said, they could not guarantee that Labor's 19 Knesset members would support the 2007 state budget.

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According to the sources, Olmert appears to be serious about including Lieberman in his government. In statements made yesterday to members of his own Kadima Party, Olmert said: "We are on the verge of expanding the coalition in the very near future ... and this will enhance the country's political stability."

"To all those living with the illusion that the government will have to face serious challenges, I say be calm, the government will last for a long time," he added, according to Kadima members. "There will be no elections in the near future."

People present at the meeting said it was obvious that Olmert was referring to Lieberman and Yisrael Beiteinu joining the coalition.

But the prime minister stressed that any expansion of the coalition would be based on the existing coalition agreements, and that he considered the Labor Party the senior coalition partner.

Olmert has been busy laying the political groundwork for Lieberman to join the coalition: He has met with the Yisrael Beiteinu leader and backed Lieberman's ca ll for changing Israel's system of government from a parliamentary to a presidential one.

Haaretz has learned that Olmert also met with Shas Chairman Eli Yishai and informed him of his plan to include Lieberman in the coalition. Yishai told Olmert that the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party does not oppose Lieberman's entry into the government.

Meanwhile, Yishai and Lieberman have not remained idle: They met yesterday to discuss matters of mutual interest. The meeting took place at Moshav Avnei Eitan in the north, where Yishai and his family are on holiday. It was arranged when Lieberman, who is vacationing in the Golan Heights, called Yishai on Monday.

During the meeting, Lieberman asked for Yishai's opinion on his proposed change in the system of government. Yishai said that he agreed with parts of it, but that an extensive discussion of the matter is needed. Lieberman asked Yishai to do his best to convince Shas's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to extend his support to the initiative.

Contrary to some media reports, the two party leaders did not discuss the sensitive issue of civil unions - essentially, civil marriages held in Israel and recognized by the state. However, at the end of the meeting, Yishai said that Shas would not compromise on this issue, while Lieberman said that his party is equally unwilling to make any concessions on the matter. Lieberman added that his party plans to pass legislation on this issue by the end of the Knesset's winter session.

Shas appears to be interested in bringing Yisrael Beiteinu into the coalition both as a counterweight to Labor and in order to stabilize the government, thereby giving it greater longevity.

However, a senior Shas source predicted yesterday that the contacts between Lieberman and Olmert will come to naught, and Yisrael Beiteinu will not join the coalition. He said that the whole purpose of the meetings is to "grab headlines."

"It's all a show," he added.

The source said that both Lieberman and Olmert know that the time is not ripe for Yisrael Beiteinu to join the government, and that there is no chance of passing laws that would either change the system of government or recognize civil unions.

"Lieberman is trying to divert attention and appear as someone who can hold his own," the source said. "Olmert has bought another day in which no one is talking about his apartment on Cremieux Street and no one is talking about a state commission of inquiry. Everyone benefits."

He explained Yishai's decision to meet Lieberman as "jumping on the media headlines bandwagon."

According to the Shas source, Olmert is trying to pressure United Torah Judaism through his talks with Lieberman, in order to get the ultra-Orthodox party to join the coalition on the basis of the terms proposed several months ago. Talks between Kadima and UTJ about bringing the latter into the coalition have been frozen for months, but never collapsed completely.

UTJ MK Moshe Gafni responded yesterday that "we will not be part of a coalition that takes action to pass a civil union law." He said that whether Yisrael Beiteinu joins the coalition or stays out of it is irrelevant, since Kadima is also pushing for a civil union law.

He also stressed that his party is strongly opposed to any change in the system of government.

But Gafni aimed the brunt of his attack against Shas, for what he claimed was its failure to insist on implementation of a coalition agreement to institute an ultra-Orthodox education law.

"I do not intend to keep quiet over the education law," Gafni said, adding that he intends to submit a no-confidence motion during the Knesset's winter session as a result of Shas's failure on this issue.

"I don't understand why they are in the government," he said. "Is it the jobs?"